Full Moon – Bad seeing – Atmospheric turbulence

Sunday, January 29th, 2012 at 9:32 am

This is Full Moon through a Vixen 80mm binoculars, redorded by a Casio digicam. There is a strong turbulence in the atmosphere. It is like watching the Moon from the bottom of a swiming pool. Astronomical seeing is a term used in astronomy to describe the distorting effect of the atmosphere on the images of astronomical objects. The seeing is caused by atmospheric turbulence yielding density variations that distort the optical path traveled by light rays from objects outside the atmosphere. The seeing measured by the best angular resolution possible under given conditions. The best observing conditions are seeing a diameter of 0.4 "arc seconds in high-altitude observatories on Mauna Kea or La Palma, in the low-altitude observatories is usual for the seeing never go down 1" or higher, depending on the local turbulence. The seeing depends strongly on the wavelength used in the observation being greater for shorter wavelengths and smaller and even negligible in long wavelengths (far infrared and radio). Adaptive optics techniques allow imaging in the visible with a resolution higher than the limit imposed by atmospheric seeing, but usually only on visual observations on small fields. Designed by the French astronomer Antoniadi, is also called Antoniadi scale and is between the Roman numerals I to V, using Roman numerals to avoid confusion with other astronomical parameters. I) seeing perfect images without any tremor. II) light curves of the pictures, with moments of calm ...